Widnes boss Denis Betts has outlined his admiration for St Helens as the two teams prepare to do battle at the Select Security Stadium tomorrow night (ko 8.00pm).

Saints are one of only two sides with a 100 per cent record in Super League XX with four wins out of four so far.

While one of those victories was a drubbing of a hapless Salford Red Devils outfit, the other three have showcased Saints’ ability to grind out results when not everything is going their way.

Betts has been casting an approving eye towards Langtree Park.

He said “They’ve got a lot of desire and a great work-ethic for each other.

“You can see they want to be successful; it’s one of those attitudinal things.

“They’ve got some real talent in their team too.

“They’re coming off the back of a Grand Final win last year and they’ve got past players as their leading coaches that everybody respects and the whole club is behind.

“Still having the likes of Jon Wilkin and James Roby in the side makes it a very strong unit.”

Saints have been hit by backline injuries to Mark Percival and Jonny Lomax and scrum-half Luke Walsh also remains on the sidelines.

Mark Flanagan picked up a head knock in last Friday’s hard-fought win at Wakefield which sees him sit out and prop Kyle Amor still has one game of a two match suspension to serve.

On the plus side, half-back Travis Burns is back in the frame after serving a one match ban.

Betts believes Saints have the playing resources to cover for missing players.

He added “The kid Percival’s a fantastic player. He’s an international player all over and he’ll be a big loss to them. But they’ll probably bring in Josh Jones who’s not a bad player.

“And they’ve got this new kid called Wellens who might play fullback for them at the weekend! It’s not bad is it.

“Playing St Helens is always exciting. These are games you want to be involved in.

“Hopefully we’ll get a decent night and a massive crowd to watch an exciting game of rugby league.

“It should be a great spectacle.”

Widnes suffered a couple of big injury blows of their own in the 24-12 defeat at Huddersfield last Friday.

Forward Hep Cahill dislocated his shoulder in the very last tackle of the game which will keep him out for at least a month. Perhaps even more damaging for the Vikings’ prospects, skipper and playmaker Kevin Brown damaged a hamstring which requires several weeks of recuperation.